BlackMask Breaking News

Atlanta mayor orders city to return to Phase 1 Lockdown as Georgia breaks record for new daily coronavirus cases

Georgia set a new single-day record for new coronavirus cases on Friday, reporting more than 4,400 new infections. The skyrocketing case numbers prompted Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms to order the city to reverse its reopening plan and return to Phase 1.  Georgia reported 4,484 cases on Friday, bringing the state’s total to 111,211, according to the Georgia Department of Public Health. The state’s total deaths increased to 2,965.  Georgia is far from the only state facing an uptick in cases. The United States reported 63,200 coronavirus cases on Thursday – another all-time, single-day high for new confirmed infections. Bottoms issued an order on Friday evening that says Atlanta will return to Phase 1, effective immediately, “in response to the alarming increase” in cases. The city was previously in Phase 2.  “Based upon the surge of COVID-19 cases and other data trends, pursuant to the recommendations of our Reopening Advisory Committee, Atlanta will return to Phase I of our reopening plan,” the mayor said in a press release. “Georgia reopened in a reckless manner and the people of our city and state are suffering the consequences.”

Businesses must continue teleworking, and restaurants and retail stores can only remain open for to-go and curbside pickups. All non-essential city facilities will remain closed.  Following the announcement, Governor Brian Kemp criticized Bottoms’ decision and said it was “legally unenforceable.” “Atlanta Mayor @KeishaBottoms’ action today is merely guidance – both non-binding and legally unenforceable,” Kemp tweeted. “As clearly stated in my executive orders, no local action can be more or less restrictive, and that rule applies statewide.” “If the Mayor actually wants to flatten the curve in Atlanta, she should start enforcing state restrictions, which she has failed to do,” he continued.  Nick Note: See the problem is the politicians are the wrong people to handle this. The more people they piss off the less likely they will get elected. So that’s why you get these mealy mouthed response. China suffed it out (for Now) because its a dictatorship. Bottom line until the politicians grow a hairy set of balls (even if they have tits) you are doomed. Its just a matter of a few months left at the most to get these infections under control. A lock down is a lock down even if you call it Phase (ha ha ha)  1. Stop the bullshit!! shut her down!! shut her down!! section by section. Spain this past week had 2 sections of the country test 5% infections rates and they shut her down. No voluntary bullshit no mealy mouth phase 1. THEY SHUT HER THE FUCK DOWN AND IF PEOPLE VIOLATE THE RULES THEY GET THE GUARDIA CIVILE UP THEIR ASS LITERALLY!  I know i got arrested in Spain for a night and put in a dungeon. It goes to show you how KING in time in the right places really helps. Most of the prisoners i saw were covered in blood. The Dungeon was dank dark with no lights and hot as hell. Fortunately when i told them them the KING was a friend of mine they waited. You should have seen them shit all over themselves when the King sent a limo to pick me up.

CHICAGO (Reuters) – The coronavirus pandemic has exposed a clash among medical experts over disease transmission that stretches back nearly a century – to the very origins of germ theory.

The Geneva-based World Health Organization acknowledged this week that the novel coronavirus can spread through tiny droplets floating in the air, a nod to more than 200 experts in aerosol science who publicly complained that the U.N. agency had failed to warn the public about this risk.

Yet the WHO still insists on more definitive proof that the novel coronavirus, which causes the respiratory disease COVID-19, can be transmitted through the air, a trait that would put it on par with measles and tuberculosis and require even more stringent measures to contain its spread.

“WHO’s slow motion on this issue is unfortunately slowing the control of the pandemic,” said Jose Jimenez, a University of Colorado chemist who signed the public letter urging the agency to change its guidance.

Jimenez and other experts in aerosol transmission have said the WHO is holding too dearly to the notion that germs are spread primarily though contact with a contaminated person or object. That idea was a foundation of modern medicine, and explicitly rejected the obsolete miasma theory that originated in the Middle Ages postulating that poisonous, foul-smelling vapors made up of decaying matter caused diseases such as cholera and the Black Death. “It’s part of the culture of medicine from the early 20th century. To accept something was airborne requires this very high level of proof,” said Dr. Donald Milton, a University of Maryland aerobiologist and a lead author of the open letter. Such proof could involve studies in which laboratory animals become sickened by exposure to the virus in the air, or studies showing viable virus particles in air samples – a level of proof not required for other modes of transmission such as contact with contaminated surfaces, the letter’s signatories said. For the WHO, such proof is necessary as it advises countries of every income and resource level to take more drastic measures against a pandemic that has killed more than 550,000 people globally, with more than 12 million confirmed infections. For example, hospitals would have to provide more healthcare personnel with heavy-duty N95 respiratory masks – personal protective gear already in short supply – and businesses and schools would need to make improvements to ventilation systems and require wearing masks indoors at all times.

“It would affect our entire way of life. And that’s why it’s a very important question,” said Dr. John Conly, a University of Calgary infectious disease expert who is part of the WHO’s group of experts advising on coronavirus guidelines.

The WHO’s latest guidance document, released on Thursday, called for more research on coronavirus aerosol transmission, which it said “has not been demonstrated.” The agency also repeated a firm cutoff on the size of infectious droplets expelled in coughing and sneezing, noting that most larger droplets are unlikely to travel beyond one meter (3.3 feet) – the basis for their one-meter social distancing guidelines. Milton and others have said larger particles have been shown to spread much farther.Conly and others maintain that if the virus were truly airborne like measles, there would already be many more cases. Nick Bit: Their are already far more infections that can only be explained by micro droplet transmission. But they are only going to see what fits into their latest theory… Kill the cats!

WHO spokeswoman Dr. Margaret Harris rejected the claim by critics that the agency is biased against the idea of aerosol transmission, saying it recognized the possibility of airborne transmission during medical procedures from early on in the pandemic. Harris said it is “quite possible” that aerosolization is a factor in some so-called super-spreading events in which one infected person infects many others in close quarters. Many of these events have occurred in places such as nightclubs where people are packed together and are not likely to be careful about protecting themselves or others from infection. “Most super-spreading events have occurred in indoor places with poor ventilation, with crowding, where it’s very difficult for people to socially distance,” Harris said. That is why, Harris said, the agency has called for urgent studies to figure out “what really happened in these clusters and what were the big factors.” Nick Note: Listening to these sold out assholes that have a narrative they are trying to sell the masses will get you killed. Its kill the cats all over again.THey want you to believe a paper filter and 6 foot separation is safe. Now that we know the virus has a aerosol component to it. It means masks and most all filtration systems are useless. And 6 foot separation means 160 feet outdoors and no amount of seperation will work indoors. Forget schools, restaurants, shopping centers and sporting events. Its a new way of life! This spells economic disaster hence the politically acceptable  that ignores the fact that the virus spreads as a aerosol. Which by the way explains the skyrocketing positives..  The Coronavirus like all 6 of the variants is a aerosol.  Very similar to TB. And that means isolation is the only solution. Hard to accept… YES! But is that not the way of truth. My friend we got a monster on our hands here. I just ordered HYPTA filters with UV sterilization and Ozone for all the units around here. That means the filters and UV are on 24/7 and ozone is turned on when people are out of the unit. We are talking   DALEY ozone  sterilization. Do as you please.

The June 28 email to the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was ominous: A senior adviser to a top Health and Human Services Department official accused the CDC of “undermining the President” by putting out a report about the potential risks of the coronavirus to pregnant women. The adviser, Paul Alexander, criticized the agency’s methods and said its warning to pregnant women “reads in a way to frighten women . . . as if the President and his administration can’t fix this and it is getting worse.” As the country enters a frightening phase of the pandemic with new daily cases surpassing 57,000 on Thursday, the CDC, the nation’s top public health agency, is coming under intense pressure from President Trump and his allies, who are downplaying the dangers in a bid to revive the economy ahead of the Nov. 3 presidential election. In a White House guided by the president’s instincts, rather than by evidence-based policy, the CDC finds itself forced constantly to backtrack or sidelined from pivotal decisions. The latest clash between the White House and its top public health advisers erupted Wednesday, when the president slammed the agency’s recommendation that schools planning to reopen should keep students’ desks six feet apart, among other steps to reduce infection risks. In a tweet, Trump — who has demanded schools at all levels hold in-person classes this fall — called the advice “very tough & expensive.” “While they want them open, they are asking schools to do very impractical things. I will be meeting with them!!!” Trump tweeted Wednesday. The CDC was already planning to issue new guidelines in the coming days. But Vice President Pence on Wednesday explicitly tied the effort to Trump’s ire. “The president said today we just don’t want the guidance to be too tough,” Pence told reporters. “And that’s the reason next week the CDC is going to be issuing a new set of tools.” Analysts say the deepening divide is undermining the authority of one of the world’s premier public health agencies, which previously led fights against malaria, smallpox and HIV/AIDS. Amid the worst public health crisis in a century, the CDC has in recent months altered or rescinded recommendations on topics including wearing masks and safely reopening restaurants and houses of worship as a result of conflicts with top administration officials. “At a time when our country needs an orchestrated, all-hands-on-deck response, there is simply no hand on the tiller,” said Beth Cameron, former senior director for global health security and biodefense on the White House National Security Council. In the absence of strong federal leadership, state and local officials have been left to figure things out for themselves, leading to conflicting messaging and chaotic responses. Trump’s decision to pull the United States out of the World Health Organization further undermined efforts to influence global strategies against the coronavirus, including how vaccines will be distributed. The CDC, meanwhile, is increasingly isolated — a function both of its growing differences with the White House and of its own significant missteps earlier in the outbreak. Those stumbles include the botched rollout of test kits likely contaminated at a CDC lab in late January, which led to critical delays in states’ ability to know where the virus was circulating. And the CDC’s initial decision to test only a narrow set of people gave the virus a head start spreading undetected across the country.  During a May lunch with Senate Republicans, Trump told the group the CDC “blew it” on the coronavirus test and that he’d installed a team of “geniuses” led by his son-in-law Jared Kushner to handle much of the response, according to two people familiar with the lunch who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Knowledge is an enormous burden. Ignorance is indeed bliss. The CDC figures are a understated joke. Here are real numbers from John Hopkins University of the real positiviety rate read them and wheep:

• Data Source:Testing data from The COVID Tracking Project

Nick Note: Its very simple its a cluster fuck. The above states should be in total lock down. Opening schools will be a catastrophic mistake. They are courting disaster. Its all about the election. Trump[ knows he has got a great big problem. So he needs people out of lockdown, kids in school so the wage slaves can go back to work. During the 4 month window before the elections people should be in lockdown. We are losing this last window to confine the outbreaks. Which means the virus wili infect the entire country. All this so the appearance of normality will prevail giving Trump his last shot at being reelected. A hundred million will be infected, of those that survive many will suffer sever disabilities for life. And 20 million will die. The economy has entered a severe depression that will only get worse. And you have not begun to see the bankruptcies, foreclosures, bank failures and millions of people starving on the streets. Do not take my word for it. Look at the proof. Everyday another record. Infections are now at 3,175,545 and deaths are at a record 133,969. Now here is the scary part. Tests in the hot spots (regions 4  South East,6  South Central and 9 South West) are showing that over 30% of the people tested are infected this is known as the positivity rate.  In Chicago the rate is 50%. National positivity average is now approaching 10%. Anything over 5% indicates the virus is spreading, anything over 8% indicates the virus is spreading rapidly. Positivity rates in the 30% means the virus is out of control. Just for the record in Europe when positivity rates reach 5% its lockdown time again.  In America

They raced to shut down their economies in March, and many opened them just as quickly in May. Now, governors across the country are facing growing pressure from public health experts and local leaders to reimpose stay-at-home orders as the only way to regain control of coronavirus outbreaks that threaten to overwhelm hospitals and send the death count spiraling. The push appeared to receive a boost from Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease official, who suggested in comments released late Wednesday that struggling states “should seriously look at shutting down.” He took a more measured approach on Thursday, emphasizing that stay-at-home orders should remain a last resort and suggesting a pause in reopening plans instead. So far, that has been the preferred method for governors seeking to arrest climbing caseloads while not alienating a virus-weary public. Yet, with scant evidence of progress in states across the Sun Belt – and beyond – experts are increasingly concluding that more drastic measures are necessary. “Stay-at-home is a blunt instrument,” said Farshad Fani Marvasti, director of public health at Arizona State University. “But when you’re leading the world in new cases and things don’t seem to be getting better, you may have to use that blunt instrument.”

Studies have found that orders that closed nonessential businesses and forbid nonessential travel or gatherings prevented millions of coronavirus cases nationwide when they were imposed this spring. Researchers have also found such orders could have saved tens of thousands of lives had they been implemented earlier.

But with the economy reeling from a prolonged shutdown, and President Donald Trump agitating for a quick reopening, governors across the country lifted restrictions in May. That was despite the fact that most had not met the White House’s own criteria for determining when it was safe to ease up. Now, with caseloads hitting new peaks, the process for some states has been thrown in reverse. Nationwide, more than a dozen states have paused their reopenings this summer as case numbers have climbed. Another half-dozen have rolled back previously announced reopenings. Several have reimposed bans on bars, which have been particularly hospitable spots for the virus to circulate.

Yet the majority of states have pressed ahead with reopenings.

Continue reading “Growing chorus pushes for renewed shutdown orders”

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, continues to contradict President Trump on coronavirus, including sharing differing descriptions about the seriousness of the pandemic in the US. While President Trump has pushed to reopen schools and downplay the surge of cases, Fauci warned in a Wall Street Journal podcast yesterday that states with resurging coronavirus cases “should seriously look at shutting down.” Fauci later noted that states with spiking coronavirus cases still can contain them by pausing their reopening processes, rather than shutting down a second time. In an interview published earlier today, Fauci said he’s “trying to figure out” where President Trump got the number behind his claim that 99% of coronavirus cases were “harmless.” On July 4, Trump sought to downplay the surge in Covid-19 cases by falsely claiming that testing in the US shows 99% of cases “are totally harmless.”

Fauci told FT that he last saw Trump on June 2 at the White House, and hasn’t personally briefed him in at least two months. Nick Note: I guess its a question of who do you ant to believe. Choose wisely my friend your life may hinge on your choice.

Trump ‘absolutely disinclined’ to shut down economy if there is a second coronavirus outbreak, Kudlow says

The oil demand crash in April, when most of America was under stay-at-home orders, resulted in the biggest monthly inventory jump in U.S. commercial crude oil inventories in data going back to 1920, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Thursday. In April, U.S. commercial crude stocks soared by 46.7 million barrels, or by 10 percent, as demand for refined petroleum products slumped to the lowest level in nearly 40 years, according to EIA estimates.   Refinery utilization rate was at 70 percent in April—the lowest utilization rate in monthly data dating back to 1985.   Demand for finished petroleum products crashed to 11.7 million barrels per day (bpd) – the lowest level since at least 1981, the EIA said. U.S. crude oil production averaged 12.1 million bpd in April, down by 669,000 bpd, or 5 percent, from March.  Demand for oil in the United States continued to be weak after April, too, leading to a record-high level of U.S. commercial crude oil inventories by the middle of June. The United States held a record-high level of commercial crude oil stocks as of the week to June 19 following the collapse in demand in the lockdown and the slow demand recovery after lockdowns were lifted, the EIA said at the end of last month. At nearly 541 million barrels of crude oil inventories for the week to June 19, the U.S. beat by 5 million barrels its previous record for the highest volume of commercial inventories from late March 2017, EIA data showed.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) latest Petroleum Supply Monthly shows the significant changes in petroleum markets that occurred in April, when most of the United States was under stay-at-home orders to limit the spread of coronavirus. In April, commercial crude oil inventories increased by 46.7 million barrels (10%)—the largest monthly increase in EIA data going back to 1920. U.S. refineries operated at 70% of their capacity, the lowest utilization rate in EIA’s monthly data series dating back to 1985. Demand for finished petroleum products fell to 11.7 million barrels per day (b/d), the lowest level since at least 1981. April’s crude oil inventory increase is a result of refinery runs falling more quickly than crude oil supply, which is determined by domestic production and imports. U.S. crude oil production in April averaged 12.1 million b/d, a decrease of 669,000 b/d (5%) from March. This decrease represents the largest month-over-month decline since September 2008, when Hurricanes Ike and Gustav hit the U.S. Gulf Coast. U.S. crude oil imports fell by 776,000 b/d (12%) from March to April, further decreasing crude oil supply in the United States. The combined drop in production and imports was smaller than the decline in gross inputs to refineries, resulting in record increases in crude oil inventories. Based on estimates in EIA’s Weekly Petroleum Status Report, commercial crude oil inventories reached a record high of 541 million barrels in the week ending June 19 and have fallen slightly in the weeks since then. Changes in travel patterns resulted in the lowest levels of U.S. demand for finished petroleum products (as measured by product supplied) in decades. Transportation fuels have been affected differently by changes in travel: demand for jet fuel and motor gasoline fell much more than distillate fuel, which is primarily consumed as diesel. From March to April, product supplied of finished motor gasoline decreased a record 1.9 million b/d (25%) to 5.9 million b/d, the lowest monthly value since the mid-1970s.

In the span of two months, U.S. demand for jet fuel fell by more than half, from 1.6 million b/d in February to 691,000 b/d in April. Before April, U.S. jet fuel demand had not been less than 700,000 b/d since the mid-1970s.

Distillate demand fell by 408,000 b/d, or about 10%, from March to April. Although the change in distillate demand was less drastic than the changes in motor gasoline and jet fuel demand, distillate consumption in April 2020 was the lowest in more than a decade.

Principal contributors: Matt French, Jimmy Troderman